The Lion Offers The Fang And Claw Awards

The Lion, not wanting to be left out of the entire sordid award business, and not being a member of the Writers’ Guild, thus under no constraints, will offer two awards from time to time, if he remembers.

The Claw Award, affectionately referred to as the Clawdie, will go to civilians. A civilian is a non-blogger, or at least someone not known to dirty his keyboard in the blogosphere with the rest of us, who has made his presence known in the press through a letter to the editor or through a quote in a news story, and who makes an ethically, politically, or morally significant and pungent comment of which The Lion approves.

The Fang Award, or, naturally, the Fangie, will go to a blogger from time to time who in any given post performs the ‘Stick it to ’em’ maneuver in an excellent and eloquent manner; or who makes an ethically, politically, or morally significant and pungent comment of which The Lion approves.

Other criteria for either award may be added or subtracted as The Lion sees fit, possibly depending on how much or how little coffee he has had, what his blood pressure is on any given day, and whether or not he is bored with the whole idea of giving awards. It should be noted that The Lion is always willing to receive awards praising his intelligence, his writing skills, his wit and humor, his manhood, his good looks, and his general, all-around beneficent influence on the world around him.

And now, the first Clawdie ever goes to C. J. Banfield, a person of indeterminate sex who, in a letter to the Globe today, wrote:

“How many Iraqi civilians is the United States justified in killing so that Americans feel safe? At what point does our appetite for security break our ethical budget?”

Criticism doesn’t get much closer to the heart of the matter than that. Congratulations, C. J. (Nothing is in the mail.)